A diagnosis of depression includes much heterogeneity in etiology, severity of illness, symptom patterns, timing of episodes, treatment, personality, and behavioral functioning. From data available in the NIMH longitudinal study of families of affectively ill and well parents, it is possible to examine differences within maternal depression and relate them to child functioning: (1) Do certain symptom patterns have greater effect on children than others? (2) Are there residues of illness present between episodes? (3) How do mothers' personality characteristics or disorders have an impact on associations with children's problems? Recency of mother's episodes does not have a strong overall effect on mother-child interactions. With older daughters, recency is associated with more negative interaction.